WASHINGTON – Notre Dame football star Manti Te’o was initially a little skeptical of Lennay Kekua, the girlfriend he dated online who turned out to be a hoax.

Katie Couric, who had an exclusive interview with Te’o, tells WTOP that the Heisman trophy runner-up whose personal life found its way into news headlines last week, did see some red flags.

“He reached out to a few friends of his who, I guess, through their circles, he thought they might know of this person, Lennay Kekua,” Couric says. “A couple of them said, ‘Yeah, she’s real.'”

Te’o told Couric that he was never directly asked if he had met Kekua, she says.

“He certainly misled people to give them the impression that they had met and that their relationship was more than just an online one,” Couric says. “He was so confused and … his head was spinning so much, he kept with the narrative.”